Public records

Ohio's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the annual exam given to ninth-graders in Cincinnati's public schools is not a public record subject to disclosure because it is a trade secret and therefore excempt from public records law, The Columbus Dispatch reports.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has stepped into the battle of the Florida news organizations against the National College Athletics Association and Florida State University over a records dispute, the Orlando Sentinel reported. McCollum filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week backing up the press in their claim that the university has tried to sidestep the state's Sunshine Law.

A Washington judge has approved a temporary restraining order blocking the release of a list of petitioners who favor a referendum on changes to the state's domestic-partnership law. The political group Protect Marriage Washington requested the order, saying that the release could lead to harassment from gay-rights activists, The Associated Press reported.

The Justice Department is trying to get a federal judge to withhold from the public for up to a decade records of former Vice President Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with a prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak case, Politico reports. Aside from claiming that, if released, the documents would subject Cheney to ridicule on television, the Justice Department claims other government officials would be more reluctant to testify in similar cases.

A local Colorado police department has refused a television station's request for instant messages exchanged between officers, saying they do not constitute public records.

According to a memo sent to Westminster police employees, a random internal audit of the  department's internal electronic messaging system revealed that employees were sending messages containing derogatory or otherwise sexually offensive comments, sometimes about each other.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist last week barred two new exemptions from being added to the state's public records law when he vetoed a pair of bills approved by state lawmakers.

The Louisiana Senate is on deck again to vote on language the House approved for a bill that would publicize more information from the governor's office but at the same time keep some currently public budget records secret for six months, according to The Associated Press.

Open government advocates in Tennessee have narrowly succeeded in blocking passage of a measure that would have barred public access to gun permits, according to The Associated Press.

The findings of a city-funded investigation into hostile workplace allegations against a judge and his staff are public under Washington records law, and should be released to a local newspaper, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The opinion upholding a trial court ruling came days after oral arguments in Morgan v. City of Federal Way, in which municipal Judge Michael Morgan had sought to keep the investigative report under wraps.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio's office will indeed have to pay more than $25,000 to cover a newspaper's attorney's fees in a public records case.